Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean:
An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750

K.N. Chaudhuri

In Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean Chaudhuri presents a
large-scale economic history of the Indian Ocean. Reminiscent of Braudel
in its sweep, it is broader in its temporal span (covering more than
a millennium) but more narrowly focused on trade (rather than general
social history). The bulk of part one is historical, describing the
rise of Islam and pre-European trading networks, the Portuguese empire,
the Dutch and English East India Companies, and the system of emporia
trade around the great ports. This is an engrossing account, linking
continuities and discontinuities in trade to political and social history.

In part two Chaudhuri turns to the longue durée, to the more slowly
changing structural aspects of Indian Ocean trade and civilisation.
Chapter six describes the seas and the skills needed to master them,
covering seafaring communities and social attitudes to the sea as well as
monsoons, navigation, and the risks of shipwreck. Chapter seven covers
shipbuilding and design: nails versus stitching, European techniques, and
Indonesian and Chinese designs. Chapter eight looks at the connections
of the sea with the land, at the importance of ports and rivers and at the
central Asian caravan routes that were part of the same trading networks,
as well as at the role of towns and urbanisation more generally. Chapter
nine describes commodities and their markets, covering the differences
between high value goods and bulk commodities (important as ballast)
and the unpredictability of prices. And chapter ten turns to capital
and finance, pointing out differences from modern capitalism — in, for
example, a lack of separation between the ownership and use of capital —
but arguing that pre-modern Indian Ocean capitalism had its own logic.